


Red Rocket Repair

by A_Bag_Of_Halflings



Series: Nick & Nora Collection [1]
Category: Fallout (Video Games), Fallout 4
Genre: And fixin' up all the settlements, And someone didn't take it very well, F/M, First Kiss, Fixin' up an old Synth, Fluff, Slight Automatron Spoilers, Totally dumb fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-03
Updated: 2016-10-03
Packaged: 2018-08-19 07:49:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,054
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8196611
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/A_Bag_Of_Halflings/pseuds/A_Bag_Of_Halflings
Summary: Nick Valentine gets a note to meet Nora at Red Rocket.





	

Nick Valentine mused on how well the Minutemen settlements were going in the Commonwealth with Nora in charge of them all. There was a non-stop train of supply lines through every one of the settlements, bringing safer trade routes and larger trade to even Diamond City. There were all sorts of people who came to be in her employment, settlers from both the Commonwealth and DC, ex-raiders, every peaceful ghoul that had been hiding away for years, and an entire farm of Mr. Handy's in Graygarden.

Graygarden was in his territory, and he used 'territory' loosely. When Nora had begun establishing settlements everywhere, she began to assign people to check in on the ones closest to them. He watched over Hangman's Alley, Oberland Station, and Graygarden. He only knew a few of the other settlements and who watched over them. Nora herself had Sanctuary, the Red Rocket Truck Stop, and Abernathy Farm, and Hancock helped out with Bunker Hill, County Crossing, and Finch Farm. He didn't know who else was where.

These three settlements, along with his continuing work through his agency, kept him busy enough that he'd hardly touched his bed in months. Not that he even needed it, but it was someplace to be when he didn't have anything else to do. It seemed every week there was another raider attack being planned on Oberland Station, so much that he had to write Nora and ask her to come and assemble some more defenses.

He offered to build some turrets on his own, but the settlers would have rather had Nora do it. Not because they didn't trust him with it, they were quick to say, but because they wanted the General to have everything set up the way she wanted.

But Nick was getting off track, because most importantly Nora ran the settlements so well that when he went to check in at Hangman's Alley, there was a letter waiting for him that had only been written a few hours ago.

It was short, and to the point.

 

_Come to Red Rocket when next convenient._

 

Nick sighed, he had a few things to discuss with Nora anyways. He thought that she'd want to know about a new job he'd heard about. It took him only a few more hours after receiving the letter to get to the Red Rocket Truck Stop.

When he had first seen the Truck Stop more than a year ago it was an utter mess of anything and everything, and had been untouched for the two hundred years after the bombs had dropped. Now it was a fortress of high walls and turrets overlooking every direction from the tops. As he got closer the turrets began to beep, and began to follow his movement, unsure if he was a raider or not. He supposed he looked enough like a caravan worker to pass.

The gates that had been built were closed, and he was unsure of what to do to announce his prescence, but decided first on knocking. He did so, getting extra volume by using his stripped and skeletal hand against a small piece of metal that had been bolted to keep two pieces of wood together.

He waited a moment or two, and could already hear someone – Nora – jogging towards the gate. One of it's tall doors was pushed out, and Nora's smiling face came into view as she pulled him through the gap.

Within the walls was even more impressive. There were all sorts of turrets in various stages of building and repair, and even a few more Mr. Handys than he remembered, and a white-painted assaultron.

Nora introduced the assaultron as Ada, and then, as though he hadn't been wowed enough, she began to find other robots both in and out of the building that were going about their chores and introduced them as well.

"I'm planning on sending a few out to some of the settlements once I've tested their abilities to accomplish simple tasks and protect the settlers. I think it'll make things much easier from here on out. I've got a Sentrybot out back that I'm reprogramming right now."

"I don't suppose you brought me out all this way just to show off your new toys?" He mumbled, watching a pink painted patched together robot roll past him.

"Oh, right." Nora smiled nervously, "I don't want you to feel insulted-"

He raised a brow.

"And if you do, tell me and I'll never mention it again. But I've met this new friend."

Nick began to run through this information a thousand different ways at lightning speed. Why was she telling him this? Were they in a serious relationship? Were they going to get married in Diamond City and she wanted to tell everyone about it first?

He didn't know if he'd be able to handle that, watching her marry some other man when he hadn't even been able to tell her the truth about how he felt. It was difficult, even now, to quantify how he felt about her, he just knew that the feelings went deep, despite his efforts to keep those particularly pesky emotions at bay. She wouldn't want to be saddled up with him – a broken synth with more wear and tear on him than an old junkyard dog.

His processing must have made him space out for a few seconds, because Nora was trying to catch his attention with that nervous smile of hers again. He nodded for her to contine.

"Well, her name is Isabel, she's going to be managing an old factory we converted to a settlement together. She taught me a few tricks about robotics and stuff like that and – well, I asked her if she knew anything about _synths_ and she said she knew in _theory_ but had never seen a live synth before – _but I'm getting off track_. Isabel did teach me a few things about what she knew in theory – and I just was wondering if you wanted some fixing up?"

Nora had said all of that in as little breath as possible, progressively trying to make herself smaller the longer she continued, and would look away quickly every time her eyes wandered up to his.

" _Thank God._ " He mumbled under his breath.

"What?" Nora hadn't quite heard him, "I didn't hear..."

"Nothing." He was quick to say, "It's fine – I mean, yes, I would like a bit of fixing up... if you can manage it."

She cheered up right away, taking him by the wrist and leading him to the garage, where they could have the privacy – even though he had seen only robots here at the Truck Stop. The doors were closed and Nora had to mess with a light that had begun to flicker when she had turned it on, but then she revealed a pushcart filled with synth parts

Nora was beset by nervousness again when she had revealed the cart, "I hope all this doesn't make you uncomfortable." She meant the broken pieces of synth.

"Not at all. All of them were programmed to be all the same, but I've got Nick's ol' brain rattling around up there." He smiled to try to ease her discomfort.

She nodded, then began to sort through the parts that she had gathered to grab the least damaged face plate and right hand. It took her awhile to get the endo skeletal hand that was still attached out, but once she put it to his hand it popped right on. The face plate was a little harder to manage for both of them, partly because Nora may have been afraid of being a little too rough with him, but he helped her pull it off in the end.

She avoided meeting his gaze while the faceplate was off, he'd never really looked at how a gen 3 synth looked like without their faceplate, but he assumed it was pretty terrifying, and he was thankful that she didn't appear afraid of it completely. Frightened of it a little, maybe, but she stood her ground silently and checked all of his wiring inside his skull. Her hands came back out and she pronounced he had a clean bill of health – brain wise. No frayed or loose wires, even at two hundred years old, he was made to last.

"I hope this doesn't make you uncomfortable." He echoed her, and what tension she had built up ebbed away a little.

"Not at all." She smiled, a perfect pre-war smile. She popped the faceplate on, and he began to move the different parts of his face to make sure it was attached properly. "How does it feel?"

"Stiff." He managed, opening and closing his mouth in an attempt to loosen the practically new face, "Where'd you get all these parts anyways? A lot of them don't even look like they've been used."

She laughed a little nervously, he hadn't seen her this nervous since they had first met. It was quite a shock to her, meeting a synth for the first time when she had hardly even heard of synths before. "Most of them haven't. I got a lot of the pieces from some forgotten storeroom in the Institute."

The Institute? His brain processed, _slowly_. He was in dire need of a diagnostic, but he was sure he didn't have enough time right now. Nora'd blown up the Institute months ago... now that he thought about it, it had been the better part of a year ago.

"You've been hanging on to these this whole time?"

She nodded shyly, "I didn't really know how to bring it up, and I didn't know the practical side of tinkering with robotics until just very recently."

Nora turned away, but he caught her hand gently, and drew her attention back to him. "Thank you, Nora. Just knowing that you were thinking about me, even during those terrible times, is more than any person could ever ask for, let alone me."

He couldn't manage to meet her eyes, like she hadn't been able to before, but kept his sight on his hands, holding one of hers gently. He marveled as he was able to feel her skin against his right hand, already beginning to get feeling in it again. Her free hand went up to his face to cup it gently, he could only feel the slight pressure, but feeling would return there as well.

"Nick, you are a person."

He looked up finally, forcing a half-grin onto his face, "Sorry, I know you hate self-deprecation."

She huffed, and took her hand from his, placing it on the other side of his face, "You're probably the greatest man I've ever known."

"I sincerely doubt that, Doll."

" _I mean it, Nick._ "

"I know you do." He stood awkwardly, motioning slightly towards the door, "If there isn't anything else, I think I should go check up on Graygarden on my way back."

"Yeah... of course." Nora walked him to the door.

He had just remembered he was going to ask her something and turned back to her, "Hey... I've got a new client who wanted me to..." He stopped short when he saw the look on her face. It was a mixture of shyness and something like nervousness, but a different kind, like she was waiting for something.

"Nora, you all right?"

She avoided his stare and mumbled a, "Yes, of course I'm fine."

"Really? Because you look about as red as a tato." Her frown was comical, and after a laugh he added, "I'm joking, Doll."

She pouted up at him, and all he could think was that Nora was the most beautiful creature he'd ever laid eyes on. Not just in her looks, which were a myth throughout all of the Commonwealth, but her generous heart and forgiving nature (Kellogg excluded) was the true beauty of her. He could never even hope to deserve someone as perfect as she was. And then she kissed him.

 

He had no idea how he got there, but he sat in the middle of the road outside of Red Rocket. Nora watched him as a provisioner tried to end the stalemate.

"Could you just... move out of the way?"

He shook his head, "Just go over me. I can die happy."


End file.
